Member of the Month

August 2021

Leela Shanker, AIA, IALD, MIES
Lighting Designer, Borealis Lighting Studio | BR+A Consulting Engineers
Founder, The Flint Collective NYC

Q: How did you first get started in the lighting industry?
My parents were both scientists and academics, so maybe it’s no surprise I ended up in a relatively new industry that involves constant inquiry and daily discovery working with a medium that confounds and amazes. But if you had asked me what I wanted to be coming out of high school, law school in my native Australia, or even mid-way through my dual degree Master of Architecture/ Master of Fine Arts Lighting Design at Parsons, my answer would not have been “lighting designer.” After starting in film and media, I became more interested in creative encounters in the physical environment, particularly public space. It was while studying at Parsons that I began to understand the vocabulary of light and space to seed stories of surprise and wonder into our city streets and it was at this time that the Flint Collective NYC was born. In 2015, Glenn Shrum, one of my professors at Parsons for whom I later became research assistant, put me in touch with the editor at illumni - a digital lighting publication based out of Sydney. I began covering lighting conferences and events in the U.S., Australia, and Europe – including the IESNYC Lumen Awards. At that time, I couldn’t have imagined the Flint Collective NYC would actually win a Lumen Award in 2021. But back then, I was writing about light at the same time I was continuing to learn about it. Having to articulate what was curious and compelling about light was a critical part of my professional growth and it gave me an introduction to a diversity of people in the lighting community. I’m grateful for the relationships made during that time as they led me to my first lighting gigs starting with internships at HLB and Tillotson Design Associates, followed by full time roles after graduation as a lighting designer with WeWork and now at Borealis Lighting Studio.

Q: How did you first get involved in the IESNYC?
The 2016 IESNYC Student Lighting Competition was part of Parsons’ first year MFA Lighting curriculum. Teaming up with Sam Powers, another Architecture/ Lighting dual degree student, we learnt much from the experimentation. It was the only inter-varsity creative meet that offered us the opportunity to see our ideas on light set beside those of peers from other schools and disciplines. It was also a lesson that simple, low-budget ideas can prevail – our grand prize-winning work, “12:04:24 – 12:04:50 AM,” was a coup in a field of polished entries and a testament to what is possible when crude invention meets battery-operated, micro-LED’s, trace paper, rubber bands, candy, kebab sticks, and electrical tape!

Q: How do you see your role as a member of the IESNYC?
Light culture is evolving, and it is through the IES that we can advocate for values and design priorities that underscore the guides and recommended practices set by the Society. As an emerging practitioner, it’s important for me to raise current concerns so that the standards represent ambitious, aspirational goals rather than perpetuating the status quo. One of the issues of greatest concern to me is how our industry practices sustainability. The IES’s educational platform has provided the means to share leading research on carbon, life cycle assessment and circular design principles in lighting. I’m looking forward to presenting in an IES webinar “Meeting the Moment: Lighting and Sustainability" this September along with Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s Kate Hickcox and Gabe Arnold. Also, a few months ago, Randy Sabedra and Jim Conti invited me to moderate the IESNYC panel - “Once More with Feeling” featuring Stephen Bernstein (CBBLD), Dietrich Neumann (Yale), Enrique Peiniger and Jean Sundin (OVI). It was an honor to support industry dialogue and be part of this stimulating conversation supporting knowledge transfer from these industry veterans to the wider lighting community.

Q: In your opinion, what are the best assets of the IESNYC?I’ve always chosen to work in environments surrounded by similarly inquiring minds– Brooke Silber (the Studio Director of Borealis Lighting), and previously Star Davis, Noele De Leon, and Jenny Werbell from WeWork’s global lighting team, who are current and former IESNYC members. They, among many other IESNYC folks, inspire me to test, share results, and shape the legacy of the profession. I appreciate the breadth of events, seminars, and resources that the Section provides to its members and the lighting community. I particularly value the Lumen Awards for honoring and celebrating projects that demonstrate the potential of light among the New York lighting community and the general public. The Flint Collective NYC, is a non-profit organization I founded with fellow creative “enactivists,” spatial storytellers, and community catalysts hailing from lighting, architecture, art, urban planning and education. Our mission is to use light to improve public space in the city. We were hugely appreciative of the recognition given to our project OPEN which received a Lumen Citation for Lighting as a Tool for Social Impact this year. This nod from our esteemed peers will go a long way in helping us do more with the medium and bring new light to the physical experience of community.

NOTE: IES Members can login and view “Once More with Feeling at iesnyc.org/iesnyc_Videos